PartyNaked

by Mari Carr

  He caught her wayward glance and for the briefest moment, she thought she saw genuine pain in his gaze. Then he placed a quick kiss on her cheek. “Thank you for dinner.”

  “Don’t leave.”

  He gave her a funny look at her abruptly spoken plea. “That wasn’t a prequel to good night. I wasn’t planning to go home right away.”

  “I mean, don’t leave tonight.”

  His face sobered. “Steph, there’s nothing on earth I want more than to spend the night with you. You must know that.”

  She glanced at his erection again, her fingers itching to touch it. She held back, something telling her it was the wrong thing to do. “Then stay.”

  “I don’t want to have sex with you.”

  She frowned. Bullshit. It was a lie his body wasn’t backing up. She was fully prepared to call him to task. “Jarod—”

  He didn’t give her a chance. “I want to make love to you, Stephanie.”

  The Stephanie she’d been before she knew Jarod would have laughed at a line like that. The cynical bitch residing inside would have ridiculed the words and the idea.

  She dug deep, looking for that response. It wasn’t there.

  For several moments, they simply looked at each other, and then the truth came crashing down around her—the secret, the key to getting what she wanted.

  Would it be so bad to bend on this one little thing? After all, it was just semantics. He could call it whatever he wanted. The end result was the same.

  “I want the same thing.”

  Jarod smiled, his face overflowing with undeniable happiness. He looked at her as if she’d just offered him the world on a platter.

  Shit. Maybe she was wrong.

  What had she just done?

  Jarod’s hand shook a little as he took hers in his. The foolish part of him knew he should ask more questions, pin her down, but he was dying. The last month had been one of the best—and worst—of his life. As he spent more and more time with Stephanie, his belief that she was the perfect woman for him had been confirmed. Since her power play in the storage room, he’d vowed to refrain from sex, entirely aware that Stephanie would continue to use that act to justify them seeing each other, declaring their attraction based on lust and nothing more.

  “Where’s your bedroom?”

  She led the way, neither of them racing through this night like the hounds of hell were chasing them as they had on previous occasions. When they reached her bed, Jarod turned her, taking her face in his hands. “You’re so beautiful.”

  She smiled and, for a moment, he thought he saw the slightest trace of tears in her eyes. Bending forward, he kissed her.

  Undressing became a sensual feast as they took their time, caressing and stroking each uncovered bit of flesh. By the time they were naked, Jarod felt as if the temperature in the room had cracked a hundred degrees. His body was on fire and only she could quench the flames. He didn’t give a shit if he was reduced to ash by the end of the night. What a way to go.

  Lying in the center of the bed, Stephanie reached out, inviting him to join her. Crawling over her body, he kissed her upper thighs, her stomach, her breasts, her neck, enjoying the feel of her soft skin beneath his lips. Her fingers tangled in his hair, pulling each time he hit a hot zone.

  Completing his journey to her lips, he rejoiced when her legs wrapped around his waist, physically connecting them. Reaching down, Stephanie grasped his cock, dragging it through her sweet arousal, wetting his flesh with her body’s juices.

  Bending, he took her nipple into his mouth, sucking on the tight nub until she squirmed and moaned, then he moved to the other breast to repeat the process. Stephanie’s hands explored his body, her nails raking the flesh of his back, her fingers digging into the muscles of his shoulders. He loved being able to drive her to this mindless madness.

  At his wit’s end, he released her breasts, rising up to kneel between her outstretched legs. Her body was flushed and she was struggling to catch her breath. It was a heady, amazing sight.

  “I need to be inside you, Stephanie.”

  “Yes,” she hissed.

  “Condom,” he whispered, as he started to reach for his pants.

  She shook her head. “Pill.”

  He paused for only a moment. Again, he knew he should make sure. Ask the question. The words never made it to his lips when she gripped his cock and placed it at the opening of her cunt.

  “Come inside me.”

  He tried to remember if he’d ever heard sweeter words. He bent over her once more, kissing her as he pressed into her body. Without the condom, the incredible feelings he’d experienced before with her were amplified a thousand times.

  When he was seated to the hilt, he paused to look at her. Her glowing face and lovable smile answered all his concerns in one fell swoop. Moving again, he thrust gently at first before he built up speed. Stephanie responded, accepting each forceful blow and answering with her own. No matter how many times they came together like this, he couldn’t deny their bodies were made for this—for each other.

  Over and over, he pounded into her body. When he knew his climax was imminent, he reached down to stroke her clit.

  “Come for me,” he demanded, rubbing the sensitive nub with more pressure. Her orgasm struck suddenly—powerfully—and her body lurched as she screamed out her pleasure.

  “God,” she cried, her nails digging into his waist painfully. He loved her fierce passion, her fiery spirit. She’d never held back from him, never pretended to be someone other than what she was, and yet she’d never be tamed. Dating her would never be dull.

  His balls constricted at the exact moment he realized the truth. He was falling for her—fast and hard.

  As they both struggled to recover, he fell to her side, reaching out to pull her close. The last thing he saw as he drifted to sleep was Stephanie’s face resting, peaceful, next to his. At last.

  The shining sun roused Jarod, alerting him it was morning, even through his closed eyes. He rolled over, reaching for Stephanie.

  When his arm struck the mattress, a wealth of emotions attacked him at once and none of them were good—disappointment, anger, pain, annoyance. Opening his eyes, he looked at the empty bed.

  She’d run away again.

  Fuck.

  Chapter Eight

  “Why are you in such a bad mood tonight?” Jordan asked when Stephanie let loose with another string of curses. No matter how hard she tried, nothing was going right. She’d screwed up three orders, broken two glasses and cut her finger while slicing a lime.

  “I’m just tired,” she lied.

  Jordan perched on the stool at the end of the bar and rested her head on her hand. It was a quiet night, a few patrons sitting at tables around the large room. Jordan was the only person to take a seat at the bar in the past hour. Unfortunately, the slow night had given Stephanie too much time to think.

  “Nope. I don’t think you’re tired at all. Did you have a fight with Jarod?”

  Stephanie shook her head. “Not exactly.”

  Jordan’s eyes narrowed. “Oh no. What did you do to sabotage this relationship, Steph?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Jordan sighed loudly. “You sort of have an established pattern in relationships. When things get to be too much, you freak out and try to fuck things up.”

  “No, I don’t.”

  Jordan reached for a bowl of pretzels. “Of course you do. You’ve done it for years.”

  “And you’re only just now finding the time to point this out to me?”

  Jordan shrugged. “Honestly, you’ve never dated anyone worth holding on to until Jarod. You’ve been pretty successful at picking out one loser after another.”

  “And Jarod’s not a loser?”

  Jordan’s look was pure exasperation. Jarod had won her friends over hook, line and sinker over the past month, often hanging out after closing time to help them clean up, bringing by sandwiches on his lunch hour f
or all of them. He’d gone out of his way to get to know her friends because he knew they were important to her. It was yet another fucking nice thing about him.

  “You know Jarod’s not a loser. Not even close.”

  Stephanie wanted to throw her friend’s words in her face, deny them. She couldn’t. She’d spent the entire day taking a long, hard look at herself and she hadn’t been happy with what she’d seen. Jordan was right. In the past, Stephanie had chosen to date men she knew she’d never lose her heart to. She’d known from practically the first moment, Jarod was different. He was a threat to her safety because he’d touched her mind, her soul, and now…God help her, her heart. She closed her eyes and willed herself not to cry.

  Jordan’s soft voice nearly did her in. “You may as well admit it. You want to be his girlfriend. Hell, I think you already are.”

  She opened her eyes and looked at her friend, fully prepared to lie. Instead, she merely nodded.

  Jordan gave her a kind, comforting smile and Stephanie knew she had chosen the right friend to confess to. Jayne, Miss Romance, would have taken her confession as a green light to start planning some fairy-tale fucking wedding, while Sophie would have hooted and hollered and high-fived the place down.

  Jordan simply looked at her with complete understanding. “It’s not the end of the world, you know. Dating someone. Making a commitment. There are worse things out there.”

  She grinned, the damn tears she didn’t want creeping into her eyes anyway. “I know. I’m just not ready to be someone’s girlfriend.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Stephanie gestured at the bar. “We’re still working on making the bar a success. We all promised to give this place three years of our undivided attention and commitment.”

  “Jarod understands that. He’s been hanging out here over a month, helping you live up to that obligation. He’s not demanding you stop working, stop caring about this bar. That’s a weak excuse to stop seeing him.”

  Stephanie nodded. It was an excuse. She knew that. Unfortunately the lump in her throat and the ache in her chest wouldn’t abate. She squeezed her eyes closed. She wouldn’t cry. She couldn’t.

  “So what happened? It’s obvious you’re upset for a reason. I don’t think these tears are a result of realizing you’ve actually opened yourself up to a real relationship.”

  “My mother called today.”

  Jordan gave her a quizzical look. “So?”

  “So, she launched into her usual ‘you’re wasting your life’ speech and I realized something.”

  “What?”

  “I’m just like her.”

  Jordan shook her head. “Jesus, Steph. You’re nothing like Bev.”

  “Maybe not completely, but I’m sure as hell laying the groundwork. Working my ass off in this bar, jumping from one failed relationship to another, closing myself off to love.”

  “I’ll give you the first two, but not the last. You don’t close yourself off to love. You’re just more guarded, more protective of your heart. Who could blame you, given Beverly’s constant criticism and shitty role-modeling?”

  “What if I can’t go the distance, Jordan? What if I screw up and hurt him? I don’t want to hurt Jarod.”

  Her friend gave her a comforting smile. “I don’t have a crystal ball. I can’t look into your future and say everything will turn out hunky-dory. I will say the fact you’re more worried about hurting Jarod then risking a broken heart yourself sort of implies to me that it’s too late. Cupid’s arrow has struck. And here we were, thinking your skin was too thick to pierce.”

  Stephanie appreciated Jordan’s attempt at humor. She took a deep breath, fighting back the pain as she recalled Jarod’s sleeping form in her bed this morning. His face had been so peaceful. He’d told her they would make love and they had. He’d given her the most magical night of her life and like a fool, she’d shoved it back down his throat come dawn. She could only imagine how furious and hurt he’d been when he woke up and found her gone. The fact he hadn’t called her all day sort of confirmed that anger. “I have morning-after issues.”

  Jordan’s brows furrowed. “I have no idea what that means.”

  “Before Jarod, I’d never spent the entire night with a guy. It seemed too personal, too much like a relationship.”

  Jordan nodded. “But you’ve spent the night with Jarod, so I don’t—”

  “I leave before he wakes up,” Stephanie interjected.

  “Every time?”

  Stephanie grinned. Her friend—knowing her love of good sex—clearly assumed she’d spent a month’s worth of nights in Jarod’s bed. How could she tell her the queen of casual sex had only gotten laid three times since she’d started seeing Jarod? She nodded. “There haven’t been that many nights.”

  “Why not?”

  “Jarod didn’t want me to mistake our relationship for lust.”

  Jordan grinned widely. “Oh man, he’s had your number right from the start, hasn’t he?”

  Stephanie refused to acknowledge the truth of that statement. The thought of Jarod understanding her so well had poked at her like a rock in her shoe for weeks.

  “I think that’s incredibly sweet…and romantic,” Jordan said.

  Stephanie paused. It was. It really was.

  “What am I going to do, Jordan?”

  Her friend reached out and grasped her hand, pulling her closer. Leaning across the bar, she spoke the answer softly. “Simple. You’re going to drive to Jarod’s house tonight after work. You’re going to knock on his door and you’re going to tell him you want to be his girlfriend and everything that entails. Then you’re going to spend the night. The whole night.”

  “There’s a very good chance he’s going to be pissed off at me.”

  “So apologize and maybe throw in a blowjob for good measure. Men are simple creatures led by their cocks. If I recall correctly, you were the one who taught me that useful tidbit.” Jordan had a wicked interior that was often masked by her shy, quiet exterior.

  “That’s not bad advice.”

  “Of course it’s not. I’m practical to the extreme. It’s a character flaw I’d love to shed.”

  Stephanie squeezed her friend’s hand before releasing it. “You don’t need to change a thing. I think you’re perfect the way you are.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s a shame you and I aren’t lesbians because apparently the male species doesn’t see me in the same light as you.”

  “You just haven’t met the right guy yet.”

  Jordan twirled the straw in her juice and tilted her head. “Wow, quite a romantic sentiment coming from you.”

  “Yeah. I guess it is.”

  “You going to take my advice?” Jordan asked.

  Stephanie nodded. It was time she stopped letting her mother’s failures dictate her future. “Yep. I guess it’s time for me to pull on my big-girl panties and try to do some things right for once. You know, I think you may have missed your calling in college. You should have gone for the psych degree.”

  “No thanks. I prefer numbers to emotions. Less gray area.”

  “Maybe I should have gone into accounting with you. God knows all those damn psychology courses didn’t do me much good. I’m pretty much a textbook basket case and I still didn’t see it.”

  Jordan laughed. “It’s always easier to look at things from the outside in. You’re stuck with the inside-out perspective in this instance. That view is much tougher.”

  Stephanie picked up a dishcloth and wiped down the bar. In the past, the idea of entering a committed relationship with someone would have terrified her. Now that she’d turned the corner and accepted her fate, she felt lighter, happier than she’d ever been. Jeez, she was fucking giddy. And she didn’t care. She smiled, continuing to clean.

  Look out, Jarod Nolan, here I come.

  It was nearly eleven when Stephanie dragged herself out to her car. Jayne had left earlier in the evening due to a killer headache. Sophie had taken off
with a few friends, opting to keep the party going by barhopping downtown. Jordan was still up in her office, working on the accounting books. There was a twin bed there and Stephanie wondered how many nights her friend chose to sleep above the store, rather than return home to her lonely apartment.

  Stephanie had practiced what she would say to Jarod all night. Her stomach did nervous flip-flops as she’d considered every potential outcome. There were too many bad ones to contemplate.

  Somehow, in a few short weeks, her hot cop had shattered all her preconceived ideas regarding relationships and romance. While she still didn’t believe in love at first sight, Jarod had proven it was possible to feel a spark, a connection that made a person want to learn more. That was exactly where she was now. She wanted to know him better, wanted him in her life. She grinned as she thought about his unfailing patience as he set out to prove exactly what they could have together, who they could be to each other. If she lost that…

  She couldn’t finish the thought or else she’d fall apart. For the first time in her life, she wanted to be someone’s girlfriend. God, please let him still want her in that role.

  As she approached her VW Bug, she noticed a Camaro parked directly behind her, blocking her in. She sucked in an anxious breath as Jarod emerged from his car.

  He leaned against the driver’s side door as she walked closer and she could see he had no intention of moving. Her heart stuttered and she felt the smallest kernel of hope. He was here. He’d listen. She’d make him listen.

  “Excuse me,” she said, quickly clearing the lump out of her throat. “You’re double-parked.”

  He lifted his hands as if unconcerned. “Parking’s brutal in this city. Besides, I’ll only be a minute.”

  She tried not to laugh as he repeated her words to her, playing along. That had to be a good sign. She crossed her arms. “So your time’s more valuable than mine?”

  He shrugged. “You missed a big breakfast—leftover spaghetti and garlic toast. Raided your fridge. Hope you don’t mind.”